THE FED FILES -
Welcome to The Fed Files blog! This blog was originally in support of the Fed Files column in Monitoring Times magazine. Although the Fed Files, as well as Monitoring Times, will end with the December 2013 issue, this blog will continue to support the new federal monitoring column in The Spectrum Monitor magazine. If you would like to make a comment, pass along a tip or frequency you can send it to my email address, chrisparris @ thefedfiles.com

This web page describes the installation of new radios in CG vessels under 87 feet in length. It specifically mentions new tactical VHF and UHF radios, and requires APCO P-25 operation with AES encryption capabilities. It also specifies that the UHF radios be capable of operations on the DoD 380 MHz trunking systems, known as the Enterprise Land Mobile Radio systems (ELMR).

It appears that this is all part of the Coast Guard's Short Range Communications Upgrade System or SRCUS;

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

I received a report from the Southeast US that the Coast Guard has started utilizing some frequencies in the 406-420 MHz band for its operations.

413.0000 MHz, P-25 (NAC not reported but I suspect N293) was heard in use by Coast Guard Sector Charleston along with 2 MH-65C helicopters.

They referred to this as "CG-410", which makes some sense in the new NTIA naming schemes. The other CG P25 net channels all start with 1, such as NET 101, since they are all in the VHF band and the frequencies start with 1. The 400 MHz channel frequencies all start with 4, so the NET numbers will apparently start with 4 as well.

I have not heard of any routine use of the federal UHF band by the Coast Guard, but there have been some vague references to new UHF radios for CG cutters and law enforcement use. Keep watching this band for more Coast Guard operations. Here are some known UHF allocations for the US Coast Guard:

This will most likely mean a new federal trunked radio system will be built at this facility as part of the takeover by the US Bureau of Prisons. I have no firm information on what frequencies will be used here, but most likely will be similar to the other BoP trunked systems and use 406-420 MHz. Because of the high profile terror suspects to be held at this facility, there will be encryption in use for sure.

About Me

Besides listening to scanners, I travel as a remote HDTV television engineer for NEP Supershooters in Pittsburgh, (http://www.nepinc.com). We provide mobile television production trucks that cover various events for all the TV networks, including sports, news, entertainment and whatever they hire us for.